Contrition
by SniperNinjaKitty
Summary: Having just received his wraith abilities from Moira, an emotionally distraught Gabriel Reyes trudges to Jack's room to try and explain himself.


A light knocking on his door rouses him from an already troubled sleep.

"Jack? Are you up?" Someone calls softly from behind the door. He recognizes the voice immediately as Gabriel's.

 _If I wasn't before I certainly am now,_ Jack thinks to himself with a huff. Groggily, he slides out of bed and places his feet on the cold concrete floor before glancing at the clock on his bedside table; it's flashing 2:14 with a red light that's all too bright for his sensitive eyes. He opens the door, and any scathing remark he might have had on the tip of his tongue is lost once he sees the man at his door. To say that he looks miserable would be an understatement. Gabriel is still in his Blackwatch uniform, armor and all. His eyes are tinged with red. Whether it's from a lack of sleep or something else Jack doesn't want to think about is uncertain.

Reyes swallows heavily. "Sorry for waking you. Can I, uh, can I come in?" His voice is shaky and uneven, so unlike his usual confident self.

Jack doesn't ask any questions, just steps aside to let him in before closing and locking the door behind him.

Gabriel sits on the edge of his bed without a word. He seems small sitting there, his shoulders hunched. His hands are occupied fiddling with the bottom of his hoodie. It's hard to gauge exactly how he's feeling, whether or not he would welcome physical contact. Jack decides to err on the side of caution and pulls up an armchair from the corner of the room to sit across from him. He interlocks his fingers on his lap, leans forward, and just waits. Waits for Gabriel to indicate what he needs. He doesn't want to push him.

Gabe's head snaps up suddenly, his expression unreadable in the darkness of the room. "Can I show you something?" he asks.

Jack tilts his head, a bit confused. That is not the first thing he was expecting out of his mouth. "Sure."

Gabriel nods his head, takes a shaky breath before lifting a hand up. It seems like he's concentrating on something, just staring down at his hand before suddenly it erupts into a plume of black smoke, the rest of his hand gone. Jack has to fight the urge to quickly stand up from his chair and back away at the sight of whatever the hell he just witnessed. Instead, he takes a deep breath and tightens his grip on the arms of the chair.

Gabriel's eyes are carefully looking over his face, searching for a reaction. Jack does his best to keep a straight face, but he can't help the feeling of anxiety that fills the pit of his stomach. He looks from Gabe's face and back to his hand. The streaks of smoke drift as if caught in a breeze yet stay centered around where his hand used to be. Suddenly. the smoke solidifies again and his hand is back on his wrist, looking perfectly normal.

There's a moment of uncomfortable silence before Reyes speaks up. "Well?" His eyes look wild.

Jack thinks for a moment on what to say, decides that he doesn't really know what _to_ say. "I, uh," he stalls. "Well, that's... new." And _weird._ He glances up at Gabe's face and sees that he's still carefully observing him. "I'm sorry, I don't really know what to say. Besides _wow._ " It's a frank admission but he hopes that Gabe understands that it doesn't come from a place of animosity. "What happened? Are you, uh, okay?"

Gabriel cringes, as if that was the one question he didn't want to hear. He sets his hand back in his lap. "She did this to me."

"Who did?" Jack homes in on the statement— _she—_ and takes a shot in the dark. "Dr. O'Deorain?" His silence is all the confirmation he needs. A wave of fresh anger rises up in him, makes his blood start to boil in his veins. He always knew there was something off about the geneticist, and now this was the last straw. Experimenting on their soldiers—on Gabe, especially—was unacceptable. They should have never hired her! He starts to stand up, determined to have a conversation with her _right now._

Gabriel must be able to read the unmistakable expression on his face, because he speaks up again, quieter than before. "It's not her fault. I, uh, I asked her to do it."

"What?" He's confused all over again. "Wait, what is _it,_ Gabe?"

"Powers." Gabe adverts his gaze again. "I asked her to give me powers like the ones she has."

That catches him off guard. O'Deorain has powers? Like some sort of superhero? That was another thing he was going to have to investigate.

Gabe continues, "I don't know the full extent of it yet, but she says I'm able to reform my cells at will—turn my body into this smoke... stuff." He takes another shaky breath. "I... wanted to be better than you. So I agreed to it."

Jack doesn't know what to think about this revelation, but it hurts. It's a blow straight to the gut. He has never considered himself superior to Gabriel in any way. They had gone through all the same training, had both gone through the SEP together. Hell, Gabriel had been three ranks higher than him in the military! Yet Reyes still considers himself inferior, apparently. Jack knew that Gabriel had been upset about him being promoted to strike commander over him—jealous, even. And he'd had every right to be; Reyes had more experience than him. Yet it was Gabe's constant reminding of this fact, the poorly masked snide remarks he'd make, their almost incessant arguing now on how Overwatch should be run, that was driving a wedge further and further between them now. It shouldn't surprise him that Gabriel would resort to genetic modification—whatever the hell this is—but it still did.

Jack wants to say something, wants to ask him why he would even come to him if his sole purpose in getting the modification was to become more powerful than him, but the pained expression on Gabriel's face stops him. He looks ten years older at that moment, as if he's been carrying a burden for years. Jack, for the first time, notices the crow's feet at the corner of his eyes, the creases at the sides of his mouth. The vacant look in his brown eyes.

Jack dares to stand up and take a seat next to the Blackwatch commander on the bed. Gabriel flinches at his touch at first but finally leans into it as Jack wraps an arm around his broad shoulders. "What do you need from me, Gabe?"

Gabriel doesn't respond at first, just sinks deeper into the embrace. "I don't know. I don't even know why I'm here, honestly. Body went on autopilot, I guess." He chuckles lowly, a bitter tone in his voice. "You should have been the last person I talked to about this—for obvious reasons." Another moment of silence goes by; Jack just lets it happen. "I don't know. A part of me wants you to be mad at me, I guess. God knows I'd deserve it."

Jack is genuinely surprised at that. "Mad at you? Why would I be?"

"Cut the nice guy shit, Morrison. I deserve your anger and you know it. I went behind your back, agreed to these powers that I don't even know what the hell they do or what the side effects are, just for my own damned pride. I'm selfish." The volume of his voice is quickly escalating. "I didn't even stop to consider how this would affect the team—how it would affect you!" His grip tightens on the bottom of his hoodie. "All I thought about was how I could be better than you and rub it in their faces!"

Jack doesn't need to ask whose faces he was trying to rub this in; he already has an idea.

Another minute goes by. Reyes' voice is soft, just barely above a whisper. "You need someone that doesn't go behind your back. Someone you can trust. You deserve better than me, Jack."

Without thinking, Jack wraps his free arm across Gabriel's chest and pulls him down onto the bed. The other man lets out a grunt in protest but obliges, wraps an arm around his back as Jack presses himself into his side.

"Shut up. Stop with the negativity." Jack rests his head on his shoulder. The Blackwatch commander smells strongly like sweat, but he can't get himself to care. "I'm not mad at you. Confused? Yes. Disappointed? Yes. But mad? No. I love you, and it'd take a lot to change that. You're stuck with me, even if you are some sort of smoke monster now."

He means it as a joke, but the choked noise that rises out of Gabriel's throat catches him by surprise and he immediately regrets his choice of words. Jack lifts his head up, tries to look at Gabriel's face, but he's turned his head to the other side, effectively blocking his view. Jack puts his head back down on his shoulder and wraps his arms around Gabriel's chest even tighter in an attempt at reassurance. It's all he can think to do.


End file.
